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Forums - Sales Discussion - Rougly how many sales are needed to break even on a high budget game?

NJ5 on 30 November 2008
el_rika said:
MGS4 took 4 years and was around 60 mil without publicity costs, was it not ? Quite possibly the most expensive [purely development costs] game so far.

To break even, around 1 mil copies, maybe a bit more.

I don't see why MGS4 would be more expensive than GTA4. I think the $100 million for GTA4 doesn't include marketing.

 



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el_rika on 30 November 2008
NJ5 said:
el_rika said:
MGS4 took 4 years and was around 60 mil without publicity costs, was it not ? Quite possibly the most expensive [purely development costs] game so far.

To break even, around 1 mil copies, maybe a bit more.

I don't see why MGS4 would be more expensive than GTA4. I think the $100 million for GTA4 doesn't include marketing.

 

I think it's mostly because of the cutscenes.

In GTA4 you have some simple conversation cutscenes mostly, while in MGS4 you have action like in Hollywood movies and stuff that usually involves a lot of figuration and stunts with highly advanced Motion Captured animations. If i remember correctly the Motion Capture sessions alone too around half an year in MGS4. Just imagine the costs for that.

 On the other hand in GTA4 there all those radio stations and songs and stuff, i guess those didn't appear from thin air neither. Not to menion the size of the city.



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FishyJoe on 30 November 2008

Another thing to consider is that high profile titles are not only expected to make profits, but ungodly profits to support all the other games and activities that don't make money.

If a game like GTAIV were only to make a modest profit, that would be considered a complete failure for the company. A game like GTAIV is expected to make massive profits to keep the company alive for years, otherwise the company will die.



NJ5 on 30 November 2008
el_rika said:
NJ5 said:

I don't see why MGS4 would be more expensive than GTA4. I think the $100 million for GTA4 doesn't include marketing.

 

I think it's mostly because of the cutscenes.

In GTA4 you have some simple conversation cutscenes mostly, while in MGS4 you have action like in Hollywood movies and stuff that usually involves a lot of figuration and stunts with highly advanced Motion Captured animations. If i remember correctly the Motion Capture sessions alone too around half an year in MGS4. Just imagine the costs for that.

 On the other hand in GTA4 there all those radio stations and songs and stuff, i guess those didn't appear from thin air neither. Not to menion the size of the city.

That's true, but I find it hard to believe that would make up for GTA4's massive number of people working in the project. GTA4 is also on two platforms which increases the number of needed programmers, testers and managers.

 



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Seneque on 30 November 2008
RPG said:
Games like Valkyria Chronicles which dont have great sales also do not have huge budgets. With that said I hope that game is making some profit as a second would be simply fantastic.

Erh, wrong example. 'Valkyria Chronicles' is a huge budget game. 3 years of development. Sega's best studios working on it. A graphical engine (known as 'CANVAS') developped from the ground specifically for it. It most likely won't be profitable (but at least, the game is great.)

 



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RPG on 30 November 2008
Seneque said:
RPG said:
Games like Valkyria Chronicles which dont have great sales also do not have huge budgets. With that said I hope that game is making some profit as a second would be simply fantastic.

Erh, wrong example. 'Valkyria Chronicles' is a huge budget game. 3 years of development. Sega's best studios working on it. A graphical engine (known as 'CANVAS') developped from the ground specifically for it. It most likely won't be profitable (but at least, the game is great.)

 

 

really? I was under the impression that Valkyria Chronicles did not cost a huge deal to make, surprised the game was not advertised at all then.



 

arsenicazure on 30 November 2008
Seneque said:
RPG said:
Games like Valkyria Chronicles which dont have great sales also do not have huge budgets. With that said I hope that game is making some profit as a second would be simply fantastic.

Erh, wrong example. 'Valkyria Chronicles' is a huge budget game. 3 years of development. Sega's best studios working on it. A graphical engine (known as 'CANVAS') developped from the ground specifically for it. It most likely won't be profitable (but at least, the game is great.)

 

 

segas best games are non profitable..

Shenmue

virtua fighter 5

Virtual on

 



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BTFeather55 on 30 November 2008

2x what it costs to develop and manufacture? I've heard that is how it is with movies anyway.



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darthdevidem01 on 30 November 2008
arsenicazure said:
Seneque said:
RPG said:
Games like Valkyria Chronicles which dont have great sales also do not have huge budgets. With that said I hope that game is making some profit as a second would be simply fantastic.

Erh, wrong example. 'Valkyria Chronicles' is a huge budget game. 3 years of development. Sega's best studios working on it. A graphical engine (known as 'CANVAS') developped from the ground specifically for it. It most likely won't be profitable (but at least, the game is great.)

 

 

segas best games are non profitable..

Shenmue

virtua fighter 5

Virtual on

 

Sorry but the 2D Sonic's were profitable

 



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Dgc1808 on 30 November 2008

I think KZ2 is probably a 55-65M game....

Nice to see the GT5 is atleast nearly breaking even already. If not the it might have even made some decent profit when you consider disc and PSN downloads.



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